Love to Sparkle @sparklesandwishes - Tumblr Blog

Posts

Open Badge: SSSC 23 Things Digital – Thing 6: Digital Security: What did I learn? Passwords, I downloaded How secure is my password to my IPAD, something which I did not know was possible, and it gave me an idea of how long it would take to crack my password online. The result showed 2000 years. I tested the app by inputting weak passwords to view the results. I was so impressed with this app, so immediately shared it with my family and colleagues in work, to support their online safety. I was also curious to go into my settings and check for updates and permission status. I was satisfied that I was secure in regards to permissions, however found out that I had some updates pending and carried these out. With regards to social media and online games I have always avoided these as I have felt my online safety may be compromised, due to the amount of ads, and links and often due to the questions asked about myself personally I feel it is an invasion of privacy and could potentially lead to identity theft. I think everyone needs to make themselves aware of Imposter accounts, one which look like they’re genuine, but under closer inspection, turn out to be fake accounts, as this could lead to you getting hacked and possibly sharing your financial information with a fake supplier. With exiting and new information I gained today, it is my plan to share this knowledge with my colleagues, and families that I work with, to help them to become digitally secure, and aware of the threats online and how to combat them. Learned so much doing this badge in such aa short space of time. Delighted!

#sssc23things

After reviewing social media platforms I decided Facebook is most popular for me to use as it allows me to maintain relationships with parents and carers daily , and give them current information quickly. I can include images and videos freely which delivers powerful messages instantly. I find Facebook to be the most popular social media site to communicate and engage with our families. It is almost like an online diary or journal. Amazing for storing data free.

My only concern with Facebook is it’s privacy settings. I find it is not 100% secure as even though privacy settings are set, there are times images and videos can be shared publicly, however I believe that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. I use it for personal and business related purposes. After taking part in the activities today I decided to review my business privacy settings on Facebook to ensure I’am doing my best to keep everyone safe.

#sssc23things

Thing 13: Professional networks: I have just worked through this badge and learned about LinkedIn, until now I had never used this platform. LinkedIn is a social network that focuses on professional networking and career development. Now that I have created an account I can use LinkedIn to display my resume, search for jobs, and enhance my professional reputation by posting updates and interacting with other people. I found it’s functions very similar to Facebook. I’am looking forward to using it more and developing my skills. I will also be able to keep updated on subjects of interest to me and keep abreast of new developments. It is free to use.

This is a link to my LinkedIn profile

I also started to follow others so that I can keep up to date with current learning and development. Below is a link to some of the professional networks I have chosen to follow and would recommend:

University of Glasgow:

Delighted to announce the University's new Rector is The Hon Lady Rita Rae, QC On behalf of the entire #TeamUofG community, many congratula

Care Inspectorate:

We are recruiting inspectors in adult services, children and young people services and early learning and childcare services. With your exp

SSSC:

Do you want to make a real difference and help us protect some of the most vulnerable in society? Due to organisational restructure and inv

#sssc23things #linkedin

Emails - I have just completed Emails badge with SSSC 23 things digital and would urge everyone to do this badge to learn tips on security, organisation and becoming more efficient and professional using email. Today I learnt how to categorise and create folders within email that will allow me to save my important emails and find them quickly. I will not need to save these documents or print again as they now have their own filing system. (Photo of my folders attached). I will definitely add more. I also discovered today that I do not need to send out individual emails to my families to protect their data as I can use Bcc to send an email to several people and their details will be confidential. This will save me time and make me more efficient. I took this opportunity to start to de clutter my emails and unsubscribe from companies that I no longer wish to receive emails from. I also considered myself to be very confident and competent using email , however today I learned a few new things to improve my knowledge and skills.

#sssc23things

Some of the following terminology is used throughout my blog: Tweet: is a message posted to Twitter/ Follow: This is similar to subscribing to tweets/ messages to receive and read them in your feed/Feed: also known as timeline, this is where all messages appear, my updates and those of people I follow/Direct message: This is a message I can send privately, and have conversations/ retweet: this is reposting of a tweet, your own or others/hashtag: is a word or keyword phrase preceded by hash. It is used to help those who maybe interested in your topic to be able to find it/ handle : is the Twitter username at the end of your profile URL/mention: is when you write a post or comment and include a person or page’s name within the text.

I just completed the Twitter badge from SSSC 23 things digital and would highly recommend this badge. I have been looking for ways to improve communication with my families whom I work with and I use Twitter in the workplace as I can start a conversation or send a short message to the newsfeed with text, images, photos, video’s, links and GIF s. I use other social media platforms more and I’am newly using Twitter and finding it very useful and informative. My tweets often reflect early years and I have started to follow accounts on Twitter to learn from them. One of the best functions is when I can retweet and share other people’s comments and stories which is great when I want to deliver a message and the content is already there. I will use the hashtag symbol before the keyword to categorise those tweets and to allow me access to similar content quickly. I follow a lot of interesting pages such SSSC, Care Inspectorate, partnership agencies to keep me abreast of new developments and update my knowledge and skills accordingly. I also share it with my team for their personal development. However working through this badge I discovered so many new ways to use Twitter effectively, such as TweetDeck and Twitter Analytics. Twitter for me will now improve communication with my families in my setting greatly.

#sssc23things

SSSC 23 things: Facebook: I would have said I was an experienced Facebook user before working through this open badge, however during this learning programme, I made a change to a privacy setting on my workplace page. After checking security and privacy settings, I discovered that my stories could be shared by friends on my list. This is not something that I want. It is okay to share with friends, however I do not want my story to be shared again by a friend. This prompted me to do a little research and discuss with my team how we resolve this. The outcome was we changed our privacy setting and made the page more secure and private. New learning promoted, with a positive outcome. Highly recommended.

#sssc23things

5 posts!

#sssc23things

Exploring social media a professional perspective: I have been given the role of social media administrator in my establishment. My new manager allocated me this responsibility and I want to do this role well and protect service users so I have been reading a lot of literature to update my skills and knowledge on safer online platforms. In the past our Facebook and Twitter page has been solely for parents with a manager updating them on this platform. Staff were not included in the friends list. This is changing and the manager wants to invite the staff on to the settings social media platforms. As a service provider, I’am aware that it is my responsibility to keep up to date with all relevant legislation, regulation and quality frameworks and guidelines. I must also ensure that these are reflected accurately in our settings policies, procedures and statements. I must take responsibility for developing and implementing good quality policies, procedures and statements. Also, as an early years service provider, reflection on practice is an important part of quality practice, policy development and policy implementation. After some self evaluation for self improvement I found that our social media policy was only describing best practice and code of conduct for parents and carers. I’m thinking this is because it was parents only on this platform. So I began with the team to develop a policy for the use of social media, setting out what is and what is not acceptable behaviour at work when using the internet, emails, smart phones, and networking websites. The policy will give clear guidelines for staff on what they can and cannot say about the setting. It is clear throughout about the distinction between business and private use of social media. The policy is intended to minimise the risks of social media which can impact on the wellbeing of staff and the reputation of the setting, and so that staff can enjoy the benefits of social networking whilst understanding the standards of conduct expected by the setting. I read the following article : How to Separate the Personal and Professional on Social Media and will now forward it to my team to read as it consolidates the message that I was delivering to them, the widespread availability and use of social networking applications brings opportunities to understand, engage and communicate with our families in new ways and that it is important that we are able to use these technologies and services effectively and flexibly, and consider the potential impact on the settings reputation. I was explaining to the team that yes allowing staff onto the social media platforms has many positives, however it also has the potential to be used inappropriately. I spent time exploring some issues and examples of unwanted behaviours and asked them to consider their position when joining the social media platforms of the setting as it is voluntary. After reading Social workers cannot ignore the role of social media in the profession article I was glad that I had created both a policy and risk assessment for the use of social media to minimise the risks that could be a potential problem. Practitioners were made aware of their personal and professional conduct when using social media. Practitioners using social media were asked to consider what information they publish to ensure confidentiality is observed at all times and the setting is not brought into disrepute. Content can be easily shared online and circulated far and wide without consent or knowledge, possibly resulting in disciplinary, civil or criminal consequences. I watched the video from the SSSC and explored the SSSC social media guidance for social service workers, and thought it was a great tool as it strengthens all the messages that I was delivering to my team. The guidelines are clear on the expected standards of conduct by employees when using social media, ensuring employees are aware of their responsibility to comply with the expected standards of conduct. My policy that I started with was adequate and now it is very good.

#sssc23things

While watching Orange’s Digital Dirt video clip on YouTube it reminded me of advice that someone gave me many years ago, they advised me never post on social media something about yourself unless you could print it and publish it on the front of a newspaper.

I’am very aware that social media is instant and public, and majority of the time permanent, left for the world to see. People can copy and share my posts and even if I delete them they can still remain on the web for others to see. There is not going back once that send button is tapped. If something negative is posted it could be embarrassing and detrimental to my employers reputation. This is a downside. This sort of reputation could affect me as a member of the SSSC in a negative way.

I entered my name into several search engines, to perform a search with my first and last name. I looked up both my prior name and my current one. I was curious to see what would be highlighted in my name and if it would be positive.

I did feel a little nervous at first wondering would something show up that would be detrimental to my professional image.

Only one thing showed up in my name which I was happy to have online, as it was a positive comment about someone collecting food from a food bank to help others. This stemmed from a Facebook post written many months ago.

After visiting 8 Tips to effectively manage your digital footprint, I took a lot of advice from it and took action to ensure that I’am protecting myself online.

I checked my privacy settings on social media to allow me to control who sees my posts on my social media streams. I spent some time getting to know these settings so that I could use them fully – for example, Facebook allows you not only to limit posts merely to “friends,” but also to make customized lists of people who can see certain posts. However, I do realise that privacy settings will not completely protect me.

I also immediately after reading this article changed my passwords to stronger ones and did updates on my devises. I will be more vigilant with future online platforms and communication.

#sssc23things

As part of applying for the SSSC 23 Things Digital, I looked at the infographic from Skills for Care and how the infographic compared to my experiences. I found that in my setting for many of the statements they did not reflect my experiences. For example up to 95% of staff found themselves to be confident or very confident in their own digital skills. I have found this not to be the case in my setting and beyond. Staff have limited opportunities for professional learning and development and limited time and resources to continue to practice and maintain their knowledge and skills in this area. Majority of staff whom I have contact with do have basic IT skills, which allows them to get by using programs such as word and emails. I find that majority lack confidence when asked to add images, join an online platform for training or a meeting , or celebrate their work through social media platforms. I completed the short self-assessment scoresheet to establish my own perception of my digital capabilities, my confidence in applying them, and the extent to which I feel they are relevant to my role in social services. I feel that my competency is high when using digital communication and media. Digital skills for me have always been high on my agenda and professional development calendar, for both personal and professional reasons. I benefited from focusing my learning in this area as COVID 19 brought for me a more coordinated and targeted approach to digital communications with our families and my own children’s home learning. This has encouraged me to turn my attention to further developing my digital skills, to further improve communication with staff and our families. I want to improve as the digital economy is growing , and there is even greater demand for people with specialist digital skills. I want to keep preparing for the need to use digital communications and learning in the future. I also want to further develop my confidence and skills because Digital technologies are a familiar and integral part of many home environments. Majority of our families routinely use technologies for both social and formal communication, so digital communication therefore provides an obvious way for me to enhance and facilitate communication with parents and provide access to nursery information quickly. I think that when children use digital technology and can choose the content they’re interested in, they gain ownership of their experience. They can take their time and explore as much as they want. In a well-designed experience, they can choose which tools they’re most comfortable using, helping them learn and develop proficiency. Children are more actively engaged because they make their own choices. Digital learning in my opinion is majority of children’s preferred way of learning so as a result the SSSC workforce are having to update and maintain their skills in this area and these SSSC digital badges is the perfect way to progress.

#sssc23things #sssc

Open badges: Thing 2. The task was to register for an account and read article on open badges and gain 2. Good news is I had achieved this previously. I already have an account and attached in a photo is previous badges that I received. I’am delighted at the thought that I can collect evidence of my learning and gain recognition for it. It’s amazing! One of the best things about these badges is the updating of my skills and knowledge and I’m so impressed it contributes to my post registration training and learning. I have also submitted thing 1: blogging and await the results. Exciting times.

#SSSC23Things

SSSC23Things

Feeling excited as I begin learning with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) and get rewarded with a SSSC digital badge. I’am particularly looking forward to social media, Twitter and open educational resources as I’am an early years manager in a large setting and one of my job remits requires me to communicate effectively with parents, carers, staff and children using a range of media platforms that suit my audience. I believe this 8 week programme will build my confidence and enable me to be more skilled and knowledgeable in this area. Another benefit for me is when I can transfer these new skills and knowledge in my home, as I support my 2 school aged children as we live in a digital world. Happy to be part of this and I have just learned how to create a blog, first time ever.

#SSSC23Things

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Love to Sparkle